The Week in Review: Remembering Oscar de la Renta, Celebrating Fashion

Oscar de la Renta shaped the meaning of elegance. With his tasteful lines, flowing silhouettes and bold colors, de la Renta proved great art in any form can transcend.

We’ve already covered the year in news, but what about the year in street style,meditation, Super Bowl commercials or a certain viral podcast? Look no further than Flipboard’s wondrous community of MagMakers to see enthusiasts around the world flip, flip, flipping stories about subjects near and dear to their hearts (and fingertips).

There are millions of magazines on Flipboard, covering everything from mesmerizing GIFs to mouthwatering desserts and stunning astrophotography. Flip through 2014’s most followed and reflipped magazines (in no particular order) to sense how diverse this community is. It’s been an honor to get to know some of you more deeply through profiles in our MagMaker blog.

It’s also been fascinating to see which stories compelled you to act—that is, to share with friends, like, comment or re-flip into your own magazines. These articles are dominated by self-improvement themes like productivity tips, happiness hacks, workouts, and books to enrich your life. Tech stories and things that might inspire a smile also resonate.

This is a picture of onions in 2014

Our MagMakers have no shortage of admirers among Flipboard employees. We collect our favorite magazines all year-long in the #MagsWeLove “metazine,” and we also revealed the mags we just couldn’t live without in 2014 in a recent blog post. You can always share your magazine must-reads with us using #MagsWeLove on Twitter.

Thank you for reading, flipping and sharing!

At Flipboard, we love to read on the job. In fact, we’re encouraged. No matter the department, we’ve each got our own favorite reader-curated magazines that inspire and educate us every day. Here are the magazines some of us just couldn’t live without this year.

Xiang Ling – Design

Manly Man Main Courses: Even as a little lady, I love this magazine, literally everything about it—not just the content, but also the title and the description.

Deema Tamimi – Product Marketing

Bionic City: Full of the kind of wonders you thought you could only dream up. Before reading this magazine, I had no idea that biology and science could be so cool and so well-integrated into urban landscapes. Today I read about luminescent forests and glow-in-the-dark buildings. I can’t wait to see what Melissa flips in next!

Mike McCue – Co-Founder/CEO

The Maritime: Terrific news and photos of major maritime happenings.

Middle East News For the Perplexed: Great collection of news from around the Middle East from all perspectives.

Life Behind Glass: Great magazine for photographers by a photographer.

Yasuko Kato – Curation

Animal Gif Anime: When I need a break from work, this is definitely my go-to. Curator@rock_zo is one of the power users in Japan who collects hilarious pictures from multiple sources. This funny and silly animal magazine gives me great “work break” moments.

Cecily Mak – Legal

Betterment: Always great content about how to better life/myself/health without being cheesy. Curated by the best!

Didier Hilhorst – Design

Leica Magic: All about the Leica M and Leica. Great high quality articles and visuals.

Superflat: Great art—super visual.

Jason Pearson – Support

The Silent Mind: I’m a yoga and meditation geek, and Fabio’s magazine always has great stories for me.

Old Hollywood Murders, Scandals, Secrets & Crimes: I randomly stumbled upon this magazine about the seedy underbelly of LA, and the historian in me can’t stop checking in. It’s like vintage “Unsolved Mysteries” on my Flipboard.

Marci McCue – Content & Communications

Academy Thoughts: Educators are tasked with teaching kids and adults around the world while also keeping up with advancements in how to teach. I love this magazine because I not only admire its purpose but also because I always learn something new—it’s just super inspiring to read.

Mia Quagliarello – Curation

All Basses Covered: I like to say that “my heartbeat has a bassline”—I so love beat- and bass-heavy music. This magazine is always one step ahead when it comes to covering the funkiest, coolest, forward-looking music.

Marcos Weskamp – Design

Woodworking: Notes, tips and ideas on the craft of woodworking. If you are into learning how to work with wood, this is a must read.

Julie Henehan – Advertising

Serial: This magazine keeps me up to date on the latest developments with my new podcast obsession, Serial. I enjoy not only the news about Adnan Syed, but also the parody articles that joke about the phenomenon this weekly podcast has become.

Jenn De La Vega – Community

The Tipperary Butcher: I’m an avid cook and my favorite thing to do is cook large amounts of meat for my friends, preferably pork. I was happy to find an active source of off-cuts, wine pairings and basic butchering techniques in this magazine. Not for the faint of heart or…vegetarians.

Shona Sanzgiri – Curation

Semiotics: Decoding Culture and Society: Looking for a sign? Go outside and you’ll probably see a couple dozen by lunch. This magazine is all about the study of the signs and symbols we see on a daily basis, and have come to ignore. From bus ads to construction signs, semiotics makes the mundane meaningful.

Carolyn Weyforth-Glanville – Brand Evangelist

50 Years of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Takes me back to my childhood!

Michele Calhoun – Advertising

The Future of Content: It’s got great, thoughtful articles around innovation in marketing—in particular, content marketing and social. It’s updated regularly and always feels fresh. I often use it to send to my clients as a useful tool for their business.

Beast Fitness: I use this magazine as a source of curation for my own workout mag. I like it because it’s unexpected and a deviation from the mainstream fitness/workout content I typically come across (and sexist or not, that’s generally geared at women). It’s more weightlifting/strength training content from blogs and other sources I wouldn’t normally access and I always find something useful for my personal workouts.

Ties between the United States and Cuba, severed more than 50 years ago, were restored this week after months of negotiations and a prisoner exchange.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced the agreement to repair diplomatic ties in simultaneous speeches on Wednesday after Alan Gross, an American imprisoned in Cuba for five years, returned to the U.S. and three jailed Cuban intelligence officers returned to their country.

President Obama said it was time for a new approach toward Cuba after years of isolation that stemmed from crises over spies and refugees, the Cuban missile crisis and deep political divides.

“Nobody represents American values better than the American people,” Obama said. “I believe this contact will ultimately do more to empower the Cuban people.”

The agreement, which Pope Francis helped broker, includes the reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, a review of Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terror, the easing of travel restrictions and expanded economic ties between the two countries.

The move was met with mixed reactions on Capitol Hill, where some Republicans are hatching a plan to prevent the shift, including to deny embassy funds, stall the nomination of a potential ambassador and vote down legislation to open travel.

House Speaker John Boehner said, “Relations with the Castro regime should not be revisited, let alone normalized, until the Cuban people enjoy freedom—and not one second sooner.” Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (FL), a Cuban-American, said he would do what he could to “unravel” the plan.

However, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “We must acknowledge our policy towards Cuba is a relic of a bygone era that weakens our leadership in the Americas and has not advanced freedom and prosperity in Cuba.”

Americans largely support diplomatic relations with Cuba, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted between July and October. One fifth of those surveyed said they did not support an opening in relations, while 43 percent said relations should be restored.

Follow the latest developments and learn more about Cuba as this shift unfolds.

Gaby S is reading “etc”